Stroger Says Report Is "B.S."

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Todd Stroger during a Chicago City Council meeting Wednesday, June 28, 2006, in Chicago. Stroger, the son of Cook County Board President John Stroger, is poised to replace his father who suffered a stroke three months ago in a flurry of negotiations between the Stroger family, and members of the city and county Democratic party.

Stroger says he let a crew for the Fox network television show, Ride Along, use his office yesterday from 3pm Thursday until 1am Friday to film a scene for an upcoming episode. He says no one from the media bothered checking with him to confirm the production, before several local media outlets picked up a story, as first reported by Sun Times Columnist, Michael Sneed.

The report quoted unnamed sources who indicated to Sneed there was an executive sweep of Stroger's office.

"Cook County investigators hauled boxes of hard drives and photo electronic devices out of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's executive office at 118 N. Clark Street, after business hours Thursday evening," the report stated.

Eugene Mullins, Stroger's Communications Director, tells NBC Chicago that this is not a whiff of Watergate, and there was not an executive sweep of the President's office.

"There were boxes of documents taken from the office because they were filming a t-v show,' Mullins said. "They even changed the names out on the doors."

NBC Chicago has learned that the County's office of Film and Entertainment arranged for a production crew to use the President's office and the Board chamber room, because the backdrop fit the imagery sought by the show.

"They were looking for an instance in which to work, that look liked an office of a mayor," said Stroger. "This is another example from the media, over the last four and a half years, of mistruths and bashing of the Stroger Administration."

On a side note, NBC Chicago did reach out to the office of the Cook County State's Attorney. A spokesman said, "We're not going to be able to comment on that."

NBC Chicago has been told the production crew intends to return to the Board chamber room to film additional scenes.